Welcome to Bleach Platinum Hearts RP! This is a Bleach Role Playing Forum set in the year 2416, over 400 years away from the Original Bleach's timeline. It has elements of both canon and custom for a unique mixture of role playing never seen before on Bleach. To get started, please sign up and read our starter guide:

The morning was bright, with sunshine and chirping, yet something felt off right as she was sleeping. In the dark of the night, a shadow had came, and it shared not its presence or purpose, or name. A scarlet red letter had been left to her side, the contents of which she couldn’t deny. It spoke of her gift, of promised desire, and it meshed rather well with all she aspired. So taking the letter to turn it around, its contents gave way to a hole on the ground.

”Down this route I go,” said the voice of the girl quite gently yet brave, as she jumped down that hole as it seemed to be safe.

Sent off to a place she didn’t know well, it seemed to be useless to try call for help. Spying instead a silhouette at a corner, the Quincy couldn’t tell if her search was now over. So reaching hand forth to grab to its shoulder, it seemed just as thought it was built like boulder.

”Are you Santa?” Spoke the girl in blatant surprise, for the fabled man looked not like he was described.

It was yet to be seen if he was Santa or something else, as he appeared with no whistles, or beauty, or bells. Yet an effort she made to seem kind and respectful, for a gift was a gift and she was really quite grateful. So standing quite still she awaited the gift she requested, though she couldn’t image just how it was created.

Blue smoke rose from the lips of the male as he leaned back in his chair, his eyes roaming around the desk where he kept his toys. They really were just toys, to him. The Doctor did not see his forays in the various fields of academia as anything truly scientific. He just dabbled, and made paltry offerings. This keychain was an example; who knew if it would ever even see use? The thing required the faith of the user to do anything, and was not even what the person had actually requested.

In some ways, though, that was how the Doctor enjoyed it. Life in general did not give individuals exactly what they wanted. Such a world would be boring, with far too much order. The Doctor could not imagine being in such a place. So it was that his creations were just a touch off from what the user typically desired. The one which concerned him the most was the one asking for what the Doctor essentially viewed as an ability. What they were hoping for was not a simple object, but something related to their own abilities, an extension of their function.

The Doctor had requested the requestor to stop by his laboratory, in order to do some tests. It made him smile just thinking about it. He was within his private meditation chambers; a place filled with bones and blood stains. Or at least, stains in the blood. The entire room was blood red, with splotches of white tile, as if the tile had been what had been splattered across the ground.

"…Hello there, Miss Revolution…"

A soft voice answered her question, turning in the chair he was sitting in. The room was lit by candlelight, illuminating the yellow snake-like eyes of the man before her. His arms were wrapped around the office chair's back, his chin resting on them. "…No…" His lips spread across his face, the edges pointing upwards. "I am… simply a helper…" His eyes began to change as they looked at her, the single reptilian lines replaced by several black circles, the rest of his eyes going red.

To his mind, her body began to separate. Her clothing, its material's that made it up. Her bare body, what it possessed, the energy trails that lead to various areas. Her internal network of energy came under his gaze, and past that even her organs. Shifting his focus, he began to pay attention to her energy network, his eyes wide before her.

The Doctor was a lithe man with gray mop-like hair, a red cloak covering his body, hood draped over the top of his head. Who knew how she would take that scene; but if she wanted what she did, she would probably listen. "…Demonstrate your ability… Heiling Buchstabe… Show it to me." He instructed her, the smile growing on his lips. His accent was flawless. Containing his excitement would be difficult at this point; this would be new information for him…

The voice uttered throughout her surroundings, giving way to the truth she knew yet avoided. He wasn’t Santa. Let’s be fair, the old fat dude was simply a tale; folklore. Children and adult mainly clung to the idea because the thought of receiving something from someone else was kinda nice, even if one happened to convince themselves of some odd fairy tale.

”Yea, I figured.”

Despite the realization however, the Quincy seemed to be more interested in her surroundings than the fact that he wasn’t whom she would’ve liked him to be. There were a plethora of tools and items all around her. None were of any kind she was familiar with but they intrigued her nonetheless. Was the man an inventor? Was he a scientist? Maybe a bit of both. Sofia lived for art, as well as other things, and frankly, there was art in just about anything that required creative and ingenuity as a core requirement. And despite lack of artistic inclination or affiliation with the term, any inventor was in a way, an artist. The girl herself had actually ventured into the realm of creation and tinkering with the abstract and the mechanical. In an effort to better understand and further her passion, she had sought to become acquainted with several means of artistic endeavors.

His next set of words startled her momentarily albeit in the best of ways. He knew of her technique but after all, it made sense; she wrote about it. And it made sense that for her request to be fulfilled, she would need to showcase just what exactly it did, and how it did it. There would be no nervousness or fear or even restrain. Instead, a pure and sincere grin of anything but innocent origins became obvious in her expression as she tried her best to hold back the excitement and the laughter. Exactly why would she laugh and why was it so funny? It was hard to tell, and she certainly wouldn’t. But then again, that was part of the joke. Sofia would extend one of her hands before her, rays of reishi and waves of reiryoku quickly flowing from underneath her feet all around her body and towards her hands. From her fingertip, a miniscule letter E appeared as a sort of tiny hologram in the air. In an instant, the letter would extend rapidly at near blinding speeds to a maximum height of over 10 meters before caving unto itself and disappearing into nothingness. The momentary height of the letter would’ve been no issue since after all, it wasn’t something tangible but rather a form of visualized energy or projection, much like a hologram. By then, the same smell letter e should’ve been branded unto both the ‘Santa Helper’ before her, and Sofia as well. It happened to be branded right over her midsection and away from view. His would have been branded somewhere along the middle of his back. The actual branding caused no pain and no real notice to allow anyone to take heed or caution of it. After all, as a form of magnet, the technique had fired off and latched onto whatever form of strong spiritual energy that was unlike Sofia’s.

“You see? There’s really nothing special to it. That was it.”

As soon as she had spoken, picking the letter o out of her first word, Sofia would have the small letter mark an area relatively close to the original. Like before, it caused her no pain and no discomfort, and it created no discernable way of noticing. However, the letter was only branded onto her as the target needed to speak for a letter to be picked from their first word. It wasn’t exactly how she had designed her request for her gift to work, but she imagined the Santa Helper had asked to see her technique not to copy it, but perhaps to figure out just how he could achieve the desired result. In any case, with the letters e and o on her body she couldn’t really make anything. But then again, he still hadn’t spoken. But to be fair, the technique wasn’t one that would allow for any real effect right off the bat as it took a lot of time to set up for anything useful. It wasn’t very different from what she imagined of the gift she requested.

”Was there anything you saw from it that caught your attention? I’d like to hear your thoughts.”

In part, she was truly curious as to his opinion. After all, while it wasn’t an item or a mechanical invention, Sofia had managed to create art. It was a unique technique that used her mastery over reishi and reiryoku as well as her artistic inclination to make something sublime. At the same time however, she really wanted him to speak, hopefully a few time to truly kickstart her ability and start adding letters unto his figure. The fun was about to begin.

"...You know... Santa would be bad at his job if people saw him do his work... I wonder if any of the legends of him are actually true...?"

The toothless smile that he maintained did not waver from her disappointment. The Doctor was not above bending the truth, or telling lies. The fact was that he was in the position of St. Nicolas, nowadays. But that knowledge was absolutely top secret. It would take all of the magic out of it should the truth be actually revealed. Perhaps lying like this was immoral. But it helped the Doctor hold the cards better if he knew more than the people that he dealt with.

He was also a bit touched in the head.

Out of the full range of reactions, the Doctor had put laughter in response to his request at a distant fourth. The most obvious reaction would have been hesitation, followed by fear. Instead, she had a reaction similar to one he might have given. Her laughter felt wholesome to him, which was a bit awkward. She seemed to be quite relaxed, despite the blood that her feet were planted in. As a whole, she did not seem altogether undisturbed by the Doctor's presentation. Hmm. I wonder how much she could take before breaking…

The Doctor had to admonish himself, his eyes focusing as she began to demonstrate her ability. I am acting in the steed of St. Nicolas; to cause harm upon her for believing in the power of what makes my son happy would be a disservice. The letter moved towards him, placing itself on his body, making him blink. That, however, seems like it was a tad uncalled for.

Things were extremely tense for the next few moments, from the Doctor's point of view. He would have to do a full search of himself now; not an unhealthy procedure, but it definitely would make organizing his schedule a bit more difficult. One of his eyes slid around in the cavern of his skull, looking back at the letter that was now branded upon his back, studying it, what had created it, what it was related to, and other properties. Steadily, the eye rotated back, staring back at her again.

"Nothing special…? Hmm… based on the request you submitted…" He told her, leaning closer. This had no real benefit; his eyes could see her exactly the same. His body was prepared for something to happen, anything. "I have to ask. Does it take anything extra out of you, mentally, to use vowels? Or are they easier? They are used far more than most other letters within the alphabet. Additionally, is it limited by the language - for example, if you were to write 'fuego', would a fire still emerge?" He was asking quite a few questions now, and that strange hesitation he had held at the beginning of their conversation seemed to have dissipated. It was as if he had entered into his element. Now that he was where he was the most comfortable, he held little reservations about speaking, wanting only information…

”I’m sure at a certain point in time the story was true. After all, the legend had to stem from somewhere."

As she finished speaking, the letter M would become engraved somewhere on her midsection. With every passing second, with every tick of the clocks, with every breath they both drew, there was an exhilarating feeling of uneasiness that quite simply drove her insane in the best of ways. She wasn’t nervous out of fear, she was nervous out of sheer excitement. Despite her youth, the Quincy prodigy could read most people well. It was obvious the man was as clever as he was deadly and dangerous. The thought that the whole ordeal could go haywire and wind up in a fight where she struggled to survive enticed her. The idea that there was someone with a collective intellect and an accrued ingenuity to be able to project the requested creations of people from around the world fascinated her. It pushed her to know more, to be more, and to do more. As it turned out, regardless of what the gift turned out to be, Sofia projected an expression as though she had already received the best of presents.

The first time he spoke, the O was chosen. The second time, the T. The third time, only the I could be chosen given the one letter word. Just as he’d start speaking each time, the selected letters would become engraved in areas that were relatively close to where the original letter had been placed. Each time the letter was branded, a small glow would be visible though there would be no noise, no pain, and no real discernable trait of what was truly happening.

”Perhaps my request is not special in comparison to what others may have asked. That’s what I meant.”

It was true. With as many crazy folk as there were, one could hardly fathom the kind of things some minds could conceive. Perhaps some had asked for a talking teddy bear. Others could’ve asked for a fluffy unicorn that projected high levels of radiation to kill spiritually unaware individuals. Who knew? In any case, as she finished speaking, the letter H would be branded unto her midsection.

”Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that well. It is limited to the English alphabet and as such it is ruled only by words that possess meaning in that language. And the words could cause me pain if I allow them to, or if I were to hit the area where I branded the original letter. Though I wouldn’t try.”

With a weird mixture of cynicism, flirtatiousness, and playful visage, Sofia described her technique. Had it not been planned out to be able to make it easier to understand, she would’ve thought she was one of those movie characters who spew out the details of their abilities just to wonder why they failed moments later. In any case, it was true. Damaging the area where the original letter had been branded would cause them both the same kind and amount of damage and effects. The same was not true for the rest of the letters, and neither could the same thing happen if the target inflicted damage on himself. From the first word she spoke, the letter N was chosen that time.

With that, Sofia would blow him a quick kiss and even gave him a wink. Just as she did this, the letters on his back, E, O, T, I would be rearranged into a word that spelled out, Tie. The kissing and the winking wasn’t necessary. The Quincy prodigy simply needed to will the action to create the word she desired from the letters available. It was simply a nice touch. So soon as the letters rearranged to form the word, they would glow momentarily and disappear; besides the letter E. No matter what word was used, the original letter always remained. As such, the Santa Helper would only have the letters E, and O branded on his back. However, a much more important and attention worthy occurrence should’ve drawn his attention and curiosity already. He could speak. But had he attempted to walk, or move, or turn, or even raise a hand, he would’ve noticed that he couldn’t. Sofia had imbued meaning into the word Tie to allow her to tie down her target, disabling movement temporarily. However, unlike other more permanent effects of words like burn, the target, with its seeming powerful energy would likely only be tied down for an additional post.

”And that’s how it works. Tell me, surprised? Disappointed? Before you speak however, I have one more thing to show you.”

Sofia knew exactly where original branded letter was; she was allowed that. While her target was tied down, the Quincy retrieved one of her seele, igniting it and pressing it against the fabric of her clothes, right over where the original letter was. The burning sensation would well, burn. It also hurt, a lot. No doubt there was some kind of wound too. On her target’s end, he would have seen the same pain, the same burn, and the same wound appear on his body though on his back, where the original letter was branded. She didn’t feel bad however. Though the wound was dangerous and the pain was harsh, it was hardly lethal. He’d be okay. From the last time she spoke, the letter D was chosen. At that time, the woman possessed the letters E, O, M, H, N, and D. From those letters, a few of them melded together to spell out the word, Mend. In an instant, the burn, the wound, and the pain that plagued the Quincy would be gone. Unfortunately so would most of the letters used besides the letter E as it was the original one. As for her acquaintance however, he would likely still be suffering the effects of the ability, both of the binding and the wound and burning pain inflicted as the healing she received did not carry out to him as well. In any case, she figured he could patch it up with ease. And if he couldn’t, Sofia had her own methods to help him heal. She wanted to show him what the ability did, she wasn’t trying to kill him…

Spoiler:

Ability UsedHeiling Buchstabe: Heiling Buchstabe, the Holy Letter. In her quest for artistic dominance and creative symbolism, the Quincy prodigy sought to intertwine her masterful skill over reiryoku to influence her technique in the way she needs it to. Though a picture is often worth a thousand words, the artistic power in battle of the Heiling Buchstabe is well worth a million actions, and a million tears, yet it could only cost a life. It was as swift and beautiful as it was cold and deadly.

Upon using the technique a small letter, any letter, will appear displayed before her. Upon casting, the letter is the size of a dime, though its size its only relevant for a split second as it expands at blinding speeds to tower over 10 meters before caving into itself and being dispersed for good. Nothing else seems to happen thereafter. There’s no direct damage caused by the technique, and it seems as though it was a wasted movement on her part, though that’s hardly the case. After dispersing, the technique latches onto whichever foreign source of spiritual energy in the vicinity that is not Sofia. Of course, she has the freedom to pick which spiritual signal she wants to target in the case of multiple opponents that are completely different entities. As such, dodging or avoiding being branded with the letter is not possible in any way. The letter will always target the source of the power being directed to. Being branded doesn’t cause pain however, and the target shouldn’t notice it in the slightest. After all, the letter is scribed anywhere in their body that Sofia wishes, and with a size no larger than one inch. Still, noticing the letter does nothing and waiting for the letter to vanish is useless as well, as it remains on the target for the remainder of the thread.

Despite the seeming uselessness of the reiryoku spell, the Quincy prodigy used her artistic leaning to engineer a technique that was simply profound. The same letter however needs to be branded onto something else at the same time. And this time, the spiritual signal has to be not just different but related to Sofia. As such, she has no choice but to brand the letter onto herself as well, or onto a sentient creation of her doing so long as its tier is similar to hers. The size of the letter doesn’t change in that case either, and the location of the branding is also up to Sofia’s choosing. From that moment on, should any damage or injury be delivered to the general area where the letter was branded on Sofia’s spiritual signal, then the target would also suffer the same pain, injuries, and consequences as her in the location of their branding. The wounds are handled in a form of ratio. As such, if Sofia brands herself with her height of 5’7” and subsequently gets stabbed in the area, creating a wound channel of 5 inches, then a branded target with a height of over 10 feet, would have a wound channel of just over 10 inches. The damage has to be done to the general area of the branding however. As such, if Sofia has branded her shoulder but she gets slashed on her thigh, the effects would not carry along. The technique is also a one way only, so even if the target were to notice their own brand, stabbing the letter in its location would yield no benefit for them.

However, Sofia may also use to forego the masochistic approach. If so, every time both the target and Sofia speak, a single letter from their first word also gets branded somewhere on their body. Only Sofia can dictate which letter gets chosen. The letter chosen from each first word spoken by the target gets branded unto their body. Likewise the letter chosen from each first word spoken by Sofia gets branded onto her body instead. For another word to be branded it requires a pause in the conversation before it can be considered a new thought. Despite only being branded by her own letters, Sofia is able to rearrange the letters into words and imbue meaning into them. That is the true and most pivotal point of her artistic ensemble. For instance, branding the word, cut on someone would create a cut somewhere on their body with the location of her choosing. Should the word had been burn then it would create a burn instead, and so on. The same applies to her as she rearranges the letters branded on her body into words. For instance, the word haste would increase her speed exponentially, while the word guard increases her defenses exponentially. Of course, not all letters need to be chosen to make the desired word, but every letter chosen has to be available beforehand.

Of course, such a beautiful and masterful reflection of art is not without its drawbacks. For one is one of the most important ones. To be able to directly hurt a target right away, Sofia has to cause the same amount of harm onto the brand on her spiritual signal as the one desired on the opponent. This makes it extremely dangerous also to herself, and not something she’d want to try too often. But there’s more, when using her words to imbue meaning into them, each letter that’s used for an effect gets removed from the body with the exception of the original first word which is always available. Letters already used can be repeated only if and when the same letter is once more added and branded onto them besides the original letter. Though of course, multiple letters of the same kind can be branded onto them. And to top it all, the Heiling Buchstabe can only be used once per thread. As such, should a third party of completely different entity and spiritual signal enter the scene, they could not be branded if a different spiritual signal already has.

"…Legends are born every day. I was going through a pile of old media from the early 2000s, for example…"

The Doctor spoke as he worked, blinking as another letter appeared on her midsection. He found it curious, but also painstakingly slow. He wondered what kind of application she sought for such an ability, for it to operate like this. "… His name was Ken. He was once crippled, but had managed to recover, and wished to show off his restored physical prowess. He was on a show known as Ultimate Beastmaster. After a series of exhausting physical trials, he was forced to do a sheer climb up a wall with a series of challenges related to it. Ken and his opponent were both stuck at the same portion at the wall. So you know what Ken did?"

The Doctor did not seem fazed by the letters that were repeatedly appearing on his body, not paying much mind to her second comment. After all, he was waiting to see what those letters would do. Finally, the letter H appeared on her. "… Ken stripped himself of his shoes while on the wall, tied them around his neck, and forced his feet to push him up the wall, making them bleed. He had no special abilities, no powers. Simply an animal who refused to let anything stand in the way of his victory. That is how legends are born… though they die out, the wider that society's consciousness becomes."

He listened to her description of the english alphabet, before moving his hand to the location on himself where the letters had appeared, flicking them lightly with a finger to measure what she had said. Does not work in that manner if I do, it seems… He refleccted on himself, before seeing the letter N appear on her. This technique was certainly interesting, and he was glad that he had arranged for this little meeting to occur. He definitely would need this information.

..Was that the initiation action? The Doctor wondered, completely missing any of the real purpose for her flirtatious behavior. He witnessed the letters rearrange themselves into a word that could be recognized. So the first letter remained… it's also a vowel… but so were I and O… so it probably isn't related to that… unless it's simply a special trait related to E.

"Interesting."

That was the word that the Doctor chose to respond with, not to her words, but at the sudden paralysis he had. The white creature that flowed out of his stomach shifting about as it looked curiously at its Master. He normally would have reached out to pet the snake's head, but he could not move his arms. He supposed that he might be able to if he were to exert a colossal amount of force, but at this point in time he really did not feel like doing that.

"…"

The Doctor was silenced as his back burned, the pain moving straight into his mind. He did not wince in the slightest, but he definitely felt the pain; it was taking up a decent amount of his focus to overcome it. More than just sensation, however, he was wounded in the same manner. Hebi slid around its master's body, sliding back up into his cloak, letting its master see through its eyes. With that, the Doctor was able to study the damage that had been done to him. "…Tell me, what does it do if I begin speaking in a language that is not romantic, such as Korean, or Japanese?" He asked, waiting for the tie to dissipate so that he could fix the wound. He was a touch annoyed at the fact that he could not fix the wound on his body immediately… but it was far from the worst thing he had ever experienced.

He was rather inquisitive mind, and it showed. It was often said that clever people, or even just those that thought beyond the realm and norms of most were deemed odd. The good doctor had wrangled up a strange analogy that nonetheless made sense. There were a few things that seemed just off about his example. But she got the gist of it nonetheless. Strength and resilience were indeed necessary. And it was quite possible to break through difficult situations as the men his examples displayed.

However, there were always plenty of ways of achieving a goal. He could certainly hammer a screw into a whole, but it would be much more efficient to use a screwdriver for such a task. Resolve and will were certainly worthy of praise, but they weren't the sole attributed that created legends. A clear example was the true progenitor of her people, Yhwach. She didn't count Nozomi as she was an abomination that shouldn't really be compared to a Quincy and who should frankly should not have existed to begin with. In any case, Yhwach possessed untold amounts of power that placed him among the very best, even today. He also possessed such vast amounts of knowledge that allowed him to place plans into motions that threatened the very foundations of the world. Even with all of that however, he lacked vision and the foundation to push his plans through.

In the cases where strength and power, and true motive and foundations existed, people just lacked the will or the intelligence. In the end, to be a legend meant one needed to be smart, or at least wise, and strong, and resolute, among many other qualities. Sure one could power their way to success through power alone, or through will or intellect alone. Anyone could. But just because they could didn't mean they should, not that it was the best approach possible. As for Sofia, she was strikingly different from the example he described, but she possessed more than enough of the traits necessary to ensure her plans came to fruition at some point in her life.

”It really depends on the language you're speaking. If you speak a form of romantic language I'd be in luck. After all, the A in Spanish is the same as in English. Sure they sound different but the letter is the same. On other hand, a kanji in Japanese or Korean may be a sound or a combination of words that's simply beyond me.”

To put it simply, Sofia could only take the letters from words or languages she understood. She only spoke Spanish and English, but other romantic languages would work as well. For instance, the letter B could appear in either Spanish, Portuguese, or English among many other languages. Despite different sounds or uses it was still the same letter used in the English alphabet. As such, she could use it. However, if someone started speaking in Korean or Chinese she would likely be out of luck. The ribbon attachment she proposed worked differently anyways. Rather than waiting for her words and her targets to pick a letter from the first word, the ribbon would draw on her energy to inscribe a randomized letter from the alphabet into the blade. Subsequently she'd be able to influence her weapon with her unique energy signature to imbue meaning into the words she created after amassing a number of letters. It made sense and it was simple enough.

”I think that's that. So, you think you're able to make it, or is it too difficult?”